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Storm raid near Jupiter
|commanders2 = Political officer |forces1 = The underground: *''Gathering Storm'' |forces2 = Laconian Imperial Navy: *2✕ Frigates *1✕ Transport ship |casual1 = Takeshi Oba |casual2 = Both frigates Transport ship boarded and supplies stolen |Political Officer killed to vacuum exposure |civilian = Transport crew all killed by vacuum exposure }}The Storm raid near Jupiter was an engagement between a small Laconian Imperial Navy fleet of two frigates escorting a Transport Union cargo ship and the Underground destroyer Gathering Storm in the Sol system. Events Preparations When the leadership of the underground learned of a high priorty target onboard a transport heading to Earth from Laconia it had its primary strike asset the Gathering Storm snuck into the Sol system onboard a large transport vessels cargo bay to Deep Transfer Station Three between Saturn and Uranus. Upon reaching this station the transport docked with another transport the Pendulum's Arc and proceeded sunward. Intel to the actual target was kept top secret and even at this point the crew of the Gathering Storm were still in the dark as to what it wasThe Expanse Novel , chapter 3 - Alex. Hours later Captain Draper would inform her crew of the Operation and its objectivesThe Expanse Novel , chapter 6 - Alex. The Engagement The Storm would leave its hiding place in the cargo bay without firing up its reactor. This kept the ship in a state of stealth with the ship manuvering using only thrusters. The Storm had a tiny radar profile for a ship of its size due to its hull materials absorbing or bouncing off any radar that hit it. The target was a Transport Union freighter carrying highly sensitive cargo and replacement parts for the ''Magnetar''-class dreadnought Heart of the Tempest stationed over EarthThe Expanse Novel , chapter 6 - Alex. This transport which was escorted by two Laconian frigates carried a Political officer which the underground intended to capture alive to extract intel. They were targeting the transport whilst it was hidden by Jupiter from the line of sight to Earth. This would hide their actions from the Laconian controlled EMC fleet and Heart of the Tempest. When close enough the Storm activated its drive and sensors, and moved to engage. The escort spotted the Storm and the destroyer turned on its jammers drowning the fleet with static. The three ships didn't change course instead moving to try and get around Jupiter. Once near enough a Breaching pod containing Bobbie and a squad of Belters in Power armor was launched at the freighter. Whilst the pod burned hard to reach the freighter the Storm fired two railgun shots through the freighter's drive cone crippling it. The frigates target locked the Storm and fired upon the destroyer forcing it to fire PDCs in defense. Storm moved in close to the frigates as despite being outnumbered it outclassed them in both firepower and tonnage. The frigates moved to away from the freighter and attempted to outflank the Storm forcing it to devide its fire between them. The breaching pod hit the freighter and the assault team led by Bobbie boarded. Bobbie and her squad of six hand picked strike team members entered FREE FIRE AUTHORISATION allowing them to use their weapons. Once the pod breached the freighter the strike team blew through the hull and boarded it. Bobbie led a team to the Ops deck whilst the second in command Jillian Houstan took a team to secure the drive and life support down in engineering. Bobbie attempted to avoid civilian casualties as at least two onboard were undercover partisans of the underground. Upon entering the Ops deck Bobbie's armor pinned seven people in Ops. One was the Political officer and another an undercover partisian. Five others however were firing at her which Bobbie and her team took out in around two seconds. The Frigates fired multiple torpedoes at the Storm which shot them down with PDCs and returned fire with four torpedoes. Two of the income torpedoes veered wide of the Storm towards the freighter instead. At this point the frigates burned hard towards the freighter to destroy it instead of defend it. Storm burned hard to defend its target and boarding team. Eight more torpedoes were fired at the frigates. Everyone was shooting and two Plasma torpedoes off the Storm slagged the nose of a frigate destroying it. The second frigate spun and shot down the chasing torpedoes attempting to get at the freighter still. It fired a full broadside of PDCs at the freighter causing damage and atmosphere to be vented through many holes in the hull. Ops and Engineering were captured. Takeshi Oba was with Bobbie in her team when he was suddenly blown apart when a raking of PDC that shredded the ship causing instant venting. Bobbie attempted to get the Ops officer and captured civilians into suits quickly, but it was two late and the undercover partisians and Political officer died to to vaccumThe Expanse Novel , Chapter 7 - Bobbie. It this point the second frigate flew past Storm at high speed with both warships firing every PDC. The frigate hit by a half dozen of Storms cannons was ripped apart into a cloud of chaff destroying it. This close range PDC engagement damaged the Gathering Storm causing the flightdeck to lose some atmosphere before the hull regenerated and the internal comms to go offline. The ship had survived relatively in good condition and repair teams would already be working. Aftermath With the freighter damaged it began falling into Jupiter. The Laconian supplies were removed from the ship before this would happen however, and placed onboard the Gathering Storm. The destroyer would then withdraw to Callisto where it was hidden in an old mine shaft that had served as a former OPA secret baseThe Expanse Novel , chapter 11 - Alex. The captured resources were unloaded into storerooms in this base to inventory. Laconia responded to the theft by redeploying the Heart of the Tempest from the orbit of Earth towards Jupiter. In a warehouse Bobbie Draper began going through all the captured materials and deviding them into useful and non-useful piles. Resources found included but were not limited to twelve crates of Laconian fuel pellets (required to power the Storm as it would not accept other fuel pellet types), active sensor control node (for repairing sensor array damage to the Heart of the Tempest done by a nuclear strike during the Battle of Point Leuctra), Laconian Marine power armor rocket ammunition, and a mysterious container marked "MAGNETIC CONTAINMENT EXPLOSIVE DANGER"The Expanse Novel , chapter 12 - Bobbie. Bobbie contacted Rini Glaudin and when she arrived it was discovered that it contained Antimatter. This was only able to be made at Laconia Station and it would eventually be used to attempt to destroy the Laconian battleship by Bobbie and her crew. Category:Events Category:Conflicts and Confrontations